When I designed my first Monogram rocking chair back in 1990, the point of greatest difficulty for me was how to attach the curved steam-bent back-leg/arm to the side of the seat. I wanted it to slice cleanly through without a break, so that the curve would look as far as possible uninterrupted, as well as ending up in exactly the right configuration to meet the back end of the rocker part below the seat as well as the underside of the arm above it.
I’d studied Sam Maloof’s jointing system, and realised that, strong and sculptural as it was, it couldn’t work starting with a single steam-bent curved element, hitting the seat edge at a compound angle. Maloof joints need to have at least one 90° angle and also a large chunk of wood to start with, to allow for shaping above and below the joint. There was far too much curve involved in my case to even think about using a solid wood block, and the wastage would have been hideous.
So I went for the most direct if unsophisticated method; I just cut a curved slot in the edge of the seat to match the squared up profile of the curved steam-bent arm/b-leg. I thought that with a snug fit, with fine V-chisel slots cross hatched on the
